1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to safety shoes incorporating instep guards and to instep guards for such safety shoes, and more particularly to such safety shoes and instep guards incorporating an improved articulated reinforcing assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The most common safety shoe used in industry is constructed with a steel toe cap built into the shoe. Such shoes have proven effective in protecting the feet of the wearer against certain types of injuries, and the wearing of such shoes is recommended or required in many industries. However, toe cap safety shoes offer only minimal protection for the wearer's foot against injuries by blows to the metatarsal arch, or instep, region of the foot.
Instep guards are known which embody a rigid member, or members, shaped to generally conform to the contour of the instep. These known instep guards may either be permanently attached to or form an integral part of a safety shoe incorporating the conventional toe cap, or be constructed as separate items for wear over the top of shoes such as street shoes, conventional work shoes, or safety toe shoes.
One prior art safety shoe and instep guard, disclosed in Griswold, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,347, incorporates in the instep guard an articulated reinforcing assembly which conforms generally to the countour of the instep and which is sufficiently flexible to permit freedom of movement by a person wearing the shoes during activity. The articulated reinforcing assembly possesses sufficient rigidity and strength to offer substantial protection from injuries to the instep resulting from a blow as by a falling object.
Instep guards embodying a single rigid member are conventionally of the type attached to and worn over a shoe, one such device being illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,888. Such devices are not entirely satisfactory both because they are uncomfortable to wear and tend to limit the freedom of movement of the wearer and because they are generally quite heavy so that wearing them causes fatigue. Further, they are difficult to attach to a shoe in a manner to assure their retention during use.
Another known foot protector, illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,555,900, employs a rigid toe cap which fits onto the end of a wearer's shoe, and an instep protector consisting of a main instep cover pivoted onto the cap and an auxiliary, removeable cover hinged to the main cover. The auxiliary cover extends upwardly along the upper instep and lower tibia regions. The main instep cover is reinforced by a plurality of upwardly projecting longitudinal, laterally spaced corregations or ribs extending along its top. The foot protector assembly of this prior patent is substantially larger than the shoe over which it is intended to fit, and is retained in spaced relation to the outer surface of the shoe by spring-pressed shoe contact members. The protector devices, are, therefore, awkward to use and as a result have themselves presented certain hazards.
While the drawbacks of the prior art devices such as those illustrated by the above mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,555,900 and 3,271,888 are largely overcome by the safety shoe incorporating the articulated instep protector of the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,347, such articulated instep protectors have not always possessed the strength and rigidity required by certain heavy industries such as the steel industry, and it is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide an improved, strengthened, articulated instep protector incorporated in or useful in connection with a safety shoe.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide an improved safety shoe and instep guard therefor which is of the general type illustrated in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,347 but which provides greater protection for the instep.
Another object is to provide an improved articulated instep guard including a plurality of rigid protective strips articulated together and each having an upwardly extending generally arcuate ridge extending thereacross with the arcuate ridges on adjacent rigid strips overlapping and cooperating with one another to form a substantially continuous upwardly extending reinforcing ridge along the rigid portion of the instep protector.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a reinforced instep protector in which the upwardly extending arcuated ridges are shaped to cooperate with one another to permit substantially free articulation of the reinforcing elements during normal use of the apparatus.
Another object is to provide an improved instep protector of the general type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,347, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.